Many Faces of Mai
by neldluva
Summary: Responses to a Mai meme I put out on my LJ. Pairings include Mai/Jun, Mai/Zuko, Mai/Sokka ... and there's genre hopping too. Something for everyone! Rated M for some adult themes and explicit content.
1. Chapter 1

From a request by 61455w41k32 for something involving fans (the kind you use to keep cool) and a scandalous pairing that would upset Zuko.

* * *

"So Prince Fussypants was your boyfriend?" Jun asks, her voice lightly teasing and just a little scornful.

"Mmm," Mai sighs, feigning boredom, though she is anything but bored with Jun's hand cupping her breast and feeling around her nipple. "Fire Lord Fussypants," she corrects, quietly, though she knows any attempts to civilize Jun are useless. The bounty hunter will probably spit at the table, pick fights with that Water Tribe boy, and have drinking contests with the earthbending blind girl. Mai doesn't mind … is mildly amused by that image, in fact.

"I can't wait to see his face," Jun chuckles, her sharp teeth sliding along Mai's jugular. "He's gonna shit three bricks. His grandpa too."

"Uncle," Mai corrects again, her voice still even and soft. "And you like the attention." She fans herself, using the bladed fan she kept from those Kyoshi girls. Their campsite on the Fire Nation coast is in a particularly muggy area, and Jun's long hair sticks to Mai's sweaty skin.

Jun smiles, all teeth and soft lips, and slides up to kiss her. "You like the excitement," she murmurs against Mai's mouth.

Mai flushes, and covers her smile with her fan. Jun knows her well.


	2. Chapter 2

From a request by banditjoeykuba: Mai and Ty Lee. Training. Doesn't have to be as a pairing, just the two of them sparring.

* * *

"Mai!" Ty Lee shouted, cartwheeling down the gangplank and running to meet her old friend. She wrapped Mai in a tight hug, an ecstatic grin on her face. "It's been so long!"

"It has," Mai agreed. The only sign that she was as excited as Ty Lee was the tiny smile on her lips. "How was your trip?"

"Oh, you know," Ty Lee said, flapping her hand at the ship. "Long and boring. There's not enough _space_ on a ship."

Mai's smile grew, just a little. It had been such a long time since she had seen Ty Lee, and still she was the same joyful character she had fought with so many years ago. True, she had abandoned the girlish pink of her old costume for the more demure blues of Kyoshi Island, and her hair was threaded with gray, but it was as if they had both stepped back in time to when they were both sixteen.

"So how's your old husband?" Ty Lee asked, cartwheeling them over to their old training grounds. "Did you finally get that stick out of his butt?"

"No. The stick's still there," Mai replied, easily falling back into her old monotone. "He couldn't come greet you because he had a meeting."

Ty Lee turned her cartwheels to a handspring and a backflip, landing neatly on her feet again. "That's too bad. But you're the one I really wanted to see. It's been _ages_ since I really practiced with someone who isn't sixteen. Training all those girls on the island is hard work."

"You're sure you don't want to eat first? Maybe rest a little? You had a long trip, and we're not as young as we used to be," Mai pointed out, self-consciously touching the silver in her own hair. It wasn't a new development – she had found her first white hair when she was twenty. Being the Fire Lord's wife was not an easy task either.

"I just want to _move_," Ty Lee insisted, adopting a fighting stance she had learned on Kyoshi. "Unless you think you're too much of an old lady to fight like we used to." Ty Lee grinned, goading her on with a couple of quick jabs.

Mai sighed like she was bored, blocking the last one. "Fine. And I'll be sure to take it easy on you … _old lady_."

And with that, they began fighting. Mai did not use her knives, and Ty Lee didn't block Mai's chi, acknowledging that it really was just a simple sparring session. Mai was impressed. Years of training with the Kyoshi warriors had turned Ty Lee into an expert martial artist, and in comparison Mai felt out of shape. She made a silent note to drag Zuko out for more practice.

Suddenly, Ty Lee called for a time-out, and Mai backed off. "What happened?" she asked, voice teasing. "Too much, even for a renowned Kyoshi warrior?"

"Maybe a little," Ty Lee replied, making a face and limping over to a seat. "Just my hip … it's been acting up. You know how it is."

"Mmm," Mai sighed, sitting beside her and feeling her own joints complain just a little from the workout. "You could see the royal physician."

Ty Lee shook her head, smiling again. "I don't need to. I just have to rest it for a bit. He'd only tell me I'm too old to be running around like a girl."

Mai nodded, understanding. She felt a content smile spread over her face, and she reached down to take her friend's hand. "It is good to see you again."


	3. Chapter 3

From a request by avocado_love: Mai gets a pet. Your choice when, where and why.

* * *

Everyone would have pinned Mai for a cat person. She was like a cat herself – solitary, clean, silent, and selectively affectionate. Her parents would have liked her to get a cat, or perhaps a small dog. That would be appropriate for a nobleman's daughter. Those who knew her better, Ty Lee and Zuko and Sokka, knew just a little better. Still, when they pictured her with a dog, it was a sleek black one, all deadly force and speed.

Mai was tempted by that idea. She did like speed, and black, but she didn't like _pure_ black. What was the point of black without a little bit of color to break it up?

People were surprised and shocked (and even a little horrified) when she returned to the Fire Nation with a huge dog from the high, snowy reaches of the Earth Kingdom mountains. It came practically to her waist at its shoulder, and was covered with long, shaggy white and brown fur. It had a deep, thunderous bark that had been known to make grown Water Tribe men retreat for cover.

"That's not a _dog_," Sokka accused once when it "attacked" him. His hands were busy trying to keep the enormous nose down and out from under his tunic. "That's a baby air bison!"

Mai snapped her fingers to call her dog off, smiling slightly behind her sleeve. The dog stuck its head under her hand, panting happily and drooling on her robes.

She ended up naming the dog Lei-zi, and together they lived happily ever after.


	4. Chapter 4

From a request by beckyh2112: Ozai/Mai. 'You must not fear to blister if you'd live a life in flame.' Consensual.

This is probably my favorite of the Mai shorts. It's just so hot and creepy.

* * *

"Ouch!" Mai hisses, pulling her hand back like she had been burned (_she had been burned_) and sucking on her finger. She glares at him like she's been betrayed, like she didn't expect it would be so hot.

He feels her eyes, sharp gaze like the arrows she keeps under her sleeves, piercing into him as if they'd actually draw blood. She likes the taste of his blood, he knows, maybe because it tastes metallic like her knives, maybe because it was so hot but not too hot for her tongue. He takes her hand, sucking on the injured finger, curling his tongue around it, letting just a small lick of flame come out again. She just watches.

"See, little blossom," he says, letting her finger leave his mouth but keeping it against his lips. "You must not fear to blister if you'd live a life in flame."

She looks mildly worried for a moment; she's always taken to flame like a moth, allured by it but always hurt in the end. Worry fades to determination, and she fearlessly pushes her finger into his mouth again, uncaring of the hot flames building in his throat.

"So burn me," she says, straddling his hips so her red robes fall open down the front. He catches just the barest hint of her small, pink-tipped breasts beneath the shadow of her hair. Smoke curls from his nostrils, his gaze predatory as he sucks on her finger. "Just don't brand me as yours," she whispers. "I'm not your son."

He growls, yanking her hand away from his mouth and pulling her in for a bruising kiss. His flames lick from his mouth into hers, and she gasps, bending to him, pulled in like a moth to the flame.

"No," he murmurs, quiet, as he slides his hand up from her breastbone to wrap around her throat. "You are not my son." _And you are already branded_.


End file.
